Just Silly Kids (Larry Stylinson)

17. Standing Up

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Niall slapped Louis' hand away.

"What?" Louis retreated his hand, pouting. "You have so many chips. You can give me some."

"No." Niall said, flicking a piece of cucumber over the lunch table, which hit Harry's shoulder.

Harry frowned. "Don't throw the food. It's for eating."

"It's just vegetable." Niall said. "Nobody actually eats that."

"I do." Harry argued. "You should if you want to stay healthy."

"Listen to my wise Hazza." Louis nodded.

"Like you eat vegetables." Niall rolled his eyes. "Don't act so innocent."

"He eats vegetables." Harry said. "Look." He held a folk with salad and a tomato in front of Louis face. The older boy grimaced but complied, leaning forward and taking the healthy stuff into his mouth. Harry smiled proudly.

"That's just because he's fucking whipped." Niall said, making Harry and Louis stutter out jumbled up protests.

Next to them, Jade and Perrie were talking to Liam. The cafeteria, as usual, was filled with happy chatter and cutlery clinking. Lunch and dinner were always the best times in Niall's opinion. You could always look forward to the meals, no matter how boring or exhausting the rest of the day is, and fortunately, their school food was pretty good.

Niall saw Haley standing at the end of the food distribution with a tray, looking lost. Niall was about to wave her over when a blue flower patterned shirt blocked his few from her. He sighed when he realized who it was.

"Eleanor, hey." Louis said uncomfortably, looking up at his girlfriend who had her hand on her hips and was glaring down at him. "Where are Jesy and Leigh-Anne?"

"At our table." She emphasized the personal pronoun. "What are you doing here?"

"Sitting with my friends." Louis held his nose high in defiance.

Eleanor snorted. "Your friends who are only pulling you down? That are trying to separate us?"

"They are doing none of that." Louis argued. "These are my real friends. Harry was the only one who helped me when I was in serious trouble. Everyone else just ran away. Even you. These lads are always there for me. I know that now. And if you can't accept that then we can't be together anymore."

Eleanor pressed her lips together tightly. Niall and Harry tensed in hopeful anticipation, but her answer was not what they expected. "I really like you, Lou. I did from the start. And if this makes you happy, then I'll support you, of course."

Everyone looked at her in surprise.
Although, Niall guessed, it made sense.

Eleanor was not a complete bitch, she had been a good friend and member of the group in the first few weeks. She just took bad actions since she was together with Louis. And if she genuinely liked Louis, Niall could understand that she was scared to loose him to Harry. Sure, it was a bit stupid that she wanted to be together with Louis when it was obvious to everyone but themselves that they were stupidly deep in love, but he supposed you could let a girl dream.

Eleanor took a seat beside Louis on the opposite side of Harry and took his hand, laying it on the table for everyone to see. Also for Harry, who quickly looked away and seemed suddenly extremely interested in his food.

"Aren't you going to get lunch?" Louis asked Eleanor, who shook her head.

"I've already eaten. We were waiting for you on our table and I finished there."

"Not our table anymore." Louis reminded her.

"Not our table anymore." She agreed and smiled at him.

If Harry was not in the picture, Niall might have found it cute. Now it just made him feel sick.

"Louis?" He got his attention. "You can have my chips."

Louis, Harry, Liam, Perrie and Jade looked at him worriedly. "Are you okay?" Louis asked. "Are you sick?"

Harry, because he was next to Niall, laid a hand on his forehead, but the blonde pushed it away. "I'm fine. Gosh, that's why I don't start this food sharing in the first place. Nobody appreciates it enough."

"No, no." Louis hurried. "I really appreciate it. I would love to have a few of these delicious looking chips from you. I'll even give you... umm... my girlfriend."

"Hey." Eleanor shrieked, offended, but then burst out into giggles, everyone except for Harry following her laughter. The word 'girlfriend' still tasted bitter on his tongue even though he was not even the one who said it.

"Sorry." Louis said. "My food is almost finished. I don't suppose you want some left over mushroom sauce..."

Niall grimaced and thrust his plate over to Louis. "Here. This is the only time I will give you some of my food so please appreciate it."

"Oh yes." Louis said dramatically. "I will cherish it with every single taste bud of my mighty tongue."

Eleanor and Harry giggled.

They had the same humour and the same taste in boys. They could have been great friends if it had not been for Louis, Niall thought.

MWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWMWM

Louis and Harry's presentation went great.

Since not the whole school had time to listen to all the presentations, only the ones Mr Busse and Mrs Wanke deemed as the best ones would get asked to hold the presentation a second time in front of the whole school.

Of course, Louis and Harry were asked, but also Niall since Harry's father thought it was a great way of helping the people to open up to topics like minority groups and homosexuality in particular. And Liam was asked, because his presentation with Sophia had been one where excessively much work had been invested in and Liam's robot was a master piece.

"Well," Harry said one evening when all of them were laying in their bunk beds, him and Louis naturally curled up together in Louis' single bed. "It seems like the only one who is not called back for a second presentation is Zayn."

"Who has the pathetic topic now?" Niall gloated.

"Shut up." Zayn hissed angrily. "At least I'm not going against Allah. If I told my father I'm sharing a room with a bunch of fags, he would call the school and make me change rooms immediately."

Nobody dared to argue after that. Niall sighed. He liked religions, they were important and gave many people a reason to live and something to hold on to even in hopeless situations, but he knew it was making accepting homosexuality a thousand times harder. It was not like all people who believed in God of Allah or whatever where homophobe, Niall had read plenty online about Christian or Muslim people who were in or supported the LGBTQ community, but it was still not everyone.

It was just because a few hundred years ago people had the opinion that this was completely wrong and wrote it down, the people today still held onto those texts and refused to built themselves a different opinion. It was sad.

But Niall did not want to go to sleep sad, so he tried to think of other things. His family, Haley, Liam, Haley...

He looked to the side and saw Harry snuggling closer to Louis, who smiled down at him fondly before turning off the bedside table light and closing the curtains around the bed.

They were so cute. Niall wanted to have that.

He fell asleep, thinking of pretty green eyes framed by glasses and a beautiful calm smile.